Playgrounds

I am looking after Tornado again today, for the same reason that I was looking after him yesterday. We humans tend to slowly deteriorate as we age and our loved ones are generally devastated by the deterioration. It's a natural part of life, and I suppose that this natural part of life causes people who care for us extreme grief. I hope the day home lady’s father is better and on the road to recovery.

This morning after Fruit Loops and some cartoon watching, we decided that a road trip was in order. I had to return some bottles and I had a willing helper in Tornado. The bottle return place is noisy and smells like a combination of stale beer, wine and soda pop. It is the perfect place for a little boy to take it all in, plus we made $7.55 which should cover the next part of our trip to Tim Horton's. I had a coffee and Tornado had an apple juice and a chocolate covered Boston Cream donut. He will learn to eat with a little more delicacy once he grows a beard or moustache.

The first playground that we went to had the look of a modern playground, all brightly coloured steel and plastic, but upon closer scrutiny, you could see that the six inch thick boards on the platforms had been worn down considerably. I knew then that this must have been one of the early modern playgrounds. There were large gaps that almost any sized kid could fall through with ease and there were a couple of times I had to rescue Tornado from a six foot fall.

 

The playgrounds in my day looked kind of like a cross between a construction site and a war zone with burned out shells of vehicles. In short, they were a whole lot of fun and incredibly dangerous. I don’t think they were designed to injure and maim, but pain is one of the best ways to learn and the guys that designed and built these playgrounds had just recently returned from the war. Parents never went with us to the playground after showing us where it was, and didn’t need to come fetch us any time after that. Whenever we went to play at the playground, we would always come home early due to some injury. They would range from mild bumps and bruises to slivers and up to broken bones and concussions. Those were good days indeed, and even better if it was your buddy that ended up facedown in the hard packed dirt.

 

The second playground we went to today was one of those ultra modern jobs where you would be hard pressed to get hurt at all. There were swinging platforms that would only swing gently, rocking apparatus that only gave the impression of rocking, slides designed so that you would come to a stop just before the end so there are no longer any face plants. Even if by some miracle you did a face plant, you wouldn’t be hurt because on the ground was some sort of padded rubber product. The only thing even mildly dangerous was something called a rotating net. I can’t even watch the damned thing or I get so dizzy I can barely stand straight and with the rubberized ground it feels as if I am drunk.

 

There was a time when I liked carnival rides, well until I went on the Twirling Teacups with my brother. This fucking ride was designed by the devil himself. The whole ride spun clockwise and had four large arms which ended in a cluster of teacups that spun counter clockwise. The teacups themselves were controlled by the kids in the teacups and could turn either way. My brother decided it would be fun if ours went clockwise. Perhaps it was for him, but for me it has since ruined any ride that turned in a circular motion. It ruined anything that went in a circular motion. The one thing I learned that day was what people meant when they referred to projectile vomiting.

Tornado and I had a fun day, and next time maybe we will hit three playgrounds in one morning.